This post was inspired by a conversation I had with a friend over IM. I was telling him about a few ideas I had for online projects, and how I can’t ever seem to find the time to get started on them. He asked me what the ideas were, so he could copy them, get rich, and retire early. I told him to think of his own brilliant schemes, and he replied that it didn’t matter anyway because he didn’t know jack about building websites.

Wordpress makes it easy

WYSIWYG editors like Wordpress make it easy to create a webpage, even if you don’t know any HTML or PHP. On the other hand, with those editors, you’re pretty much locked into the same setup as everyone else who uses them. If you want something original or different, you’re out of luck.

A crash course

If you want to get anywhere in web design, take a few moments to familiarize yourself with basic HTML tags. Webmonkey has a pretty good cheat sheet that is pretty self explanatory. Once you’re comfortable with the basics, find yourself a good design template and insert your content. As long as you’re not looking for dynamic content, this is pretty much all you need for your own website. Find a good hosting provider and you’re set.